SANTO DOMINGO.- The engineering firm PyT Infraestructura formally requested a 90-day extension from RD Vial for the delivery of the terms of reference for the design and construction of the Amber Highway, one of the strategic road projects for the connection between the Cibao region and the north coast of the country.
The request directly impacts the timeline for the national public tender for the road that will connect the Santiago Northern Ring Road with the Puerto Plata–Sosúa highway. According to the official schedule, physical proposals from interested companies must be submitted in sealed envelopes by noon on Friday, March 20, 2026, the deadline set by RD Vial.
The general manager of PyT Infraestructura, Amín Ricardo García Acuña, explained that the request stems from the need to more precisely define the optimal road alignment before submitting a final technical design. In his opinion, proceeding without this definition compromises the quality of the preliminary design and the accuracy of the construction budget.
García Acuña pointed out that, according to industry standards, preparing a preliminary project with reliable cost estimates requires an investment of between USD 2 and USD 3 million, and questioned why the current tender documents do not establish clear guidelines on the intellectual property of the design developed by the bidders.
The company also argued that, in comparable processes, it is common practice for the client—in this case, the government—to provide a baseline design to the bidders to ensure a level playing field. In this regard, it suggested that if previous studies developed under Public-Private Partnership, these should be made available to ensure that the technical proposals can be evaluated on equal terms.
If the government has not yet paid for these studies, PyT Infraestructura proposed that the design costs be included in the final bidder's offer. The extension request is also based on the complexity of the fieldwork, which includes laboratory studies and technical overflights necessary for high-precision engineering.
With this request, PyT Infraestructura becomes the second company to request adjustments to the process, joining a previous request from the Ruta del Ámbar Consortium. This proposal opens the debate on the balance between administrative deadlines and the need for solid technical foundations in large-scale infrastructure projects.
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